History of European ideas

This essay explores one of the potential implications of the cross-displinary work implied in the idea of a literary instrument of enlightenment through a consideration of the relationship between James Macpherson's The Poems of Ossian (1761–1763) and their most immediate social-political context, Adam Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society (1769). It notes that revisionism of Macpherson that has tended to minimise the disruptive elements in Ossian in favour of a reading in terms of cultural wishfulfilment. The essay argues however that while Macpherson's prose theorising seeks to transcend the anxieties about progress and corruption articulated in the Essay, the peoms themselves offer eloquent testimony to the force of those anxieties, and rather than solving them restates them in pressing terms. This, the essay concludes by suggesting, is a measure of their literariness, and it not to be elided in the otherwise entirely appropriate reading of Ossian as a literary instrument of enlightenment.     

欧洲历史上家庭概念的演变及其特征

本文分析了自古典时代到 1 8世纪欧洲人家庭观念的演变及其与欧洲社会经济发展的关系。作者认为 ,古代罗马的家庭具有奴性 ,与奴隶制有关。随着奴隶制和家长权的衰落 ,以婚姻和血缘关系为基础的自然家庭的重要性逐渐显现。但是 ,家庭要成为一个独立的社会组织还要经历一个漫长的过程。在中世纪前期 ,欧洲人的家庭生活集体依然依附于当时的土地耕作制度。份地是当时的赋税征收单位 ,它包容了数量不同、形式多样的家庭户。份地制度的衰落终于使家庭户成为独立的社会组织。但至少从中世纪中期起至 1 8世纪中叶 ,欧洲人所说的家庭实际上就是家庭户 ,同住的非亲族成员也被算成家庭的一员 ,与户主形成假性的家庭关系。近代初期 ,随着商品货币关系向家庭户的渗透 ,从前虚拟的家庭关系便转化为雇佣关系 ,家庭才成为一个以血缘和婚姻关系为基础、共同生活的亲族集体 ,现代的家庭概念得以形成。作者认为 ,在欧洲历史上 ,家庭组织的存在方式和人们的家庭观念始终与一定的社会经济条件相联系 ,它们的演变过程几乎就是一部简约的欧洲史。     

欧洲整体的历史与整体的阐述——评《欧洲的分与合》

《欧洲的分与合》这部著作具有重大的学术价值：这是中国史学界第一次真正把欧洲作为一个整体来阐述它的历史发展,论证了当代欧洲发生巨变的必然性;标志着中国史学界在欧洲史研究领域取得了突破性进展。《欧洲的分与合》以其对欧洲整体的历史作出整体阐述的风格,超越了以往众多的欧洲史著作。     

A Liberal History of European Integration

John Gillingham's voluminous new book chronicles the course of European integration from the 1950s to the present. It contains interesting accounts of a variety of important events, and has the merit of drawing attention to the European Union as a subject for serious historical scholarship. Some readers, however, may find certain of Gillingham's major arguments controversial, especially his insistence that integration has been and will always be primarily about economic liberalization.